MARTIN O’Connor today hailed Alex Nicholls for his devastating impact on the wing against Brighton on Tuesday night.

Nicholls hounded the Seagulls’ defence and had a creative hand in all the Saddlers’ goals in their 3-0 win.

But while saluting the winger’s input, assistant manager O’Connor also had praise for a more unsung contributor – central midfielder Dwayne Mattis.

“Dwayne went unnoticed but, for me, he was superb,” O’Connor said.

“He just did a great job in there. He won second balls and knock-downs, linked the play forward and stopped their forward play. It was a good team performance all-round and for Alex to play so well that their left-back was taken off at half-time just shows what he can do.

‘‘Hopefully that will give Alex a boost because he has been one of our most consistent performers. He is a confidence player and has made a lot of assists.”

The victory over Brighton was just what Walsall needed after their mystifyingly poor display in the 5-0 home defeat to Bristol Rovers last Saturday.

“Last Saturday was a blip,” O’Connor said.

“We all felt it together. We were all down when we came into training on Sunday morning and we all wanted to put it right. We did that but now we have to push on again, starting at Orient on Saturday.”